High School category, Page 658
New coach Palaschak hopes to keep Norwin boys volleyball team among WPIAL’s best
Norwin first-year boys volleyball coach Mike Palaschak pays attention to rankings because, well, he kind of has to. He participates in the voting for the weekly Western PA Volleyball Coaches Association poll, which ranks the top 10 WPIAL teams in Class 3A and 2A. So, he couldn’t help but notice...
George Guido: Shot clock would fix game that isn’t broken
The PIAA has delayed a final decision on whether to use a shot clock in high school basketball until at least the 2024-25 season. That’s when the next two-year enrollment cycle begins. In the interim, the PIAA plans to survey member schools to see what they think. The National Federation...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Burrell’s Bella Stewart, Kiski Area’s Jacob Smith
Bella Stewart Class: Freshman School: Burrell Sport: Softball Report card: Burrell freshman catcher Bella Stewart was 3 for 4 with a double and four RBIs in helping the Bucs (4-0, 3-0) earn a 6-3 win over Highlands in a Section 1-4A game Wednesday. She also was on the receiving end...
A-K Valley Sports Hall of Fame inductee was top Fox Chapel wrestler before PSU football career
Rich Kriston is recognized as one of the best heavyweights in the storied history of the Fox Chapel wrestling program. Kriston won three consecutive section titles from 1970-72 and was the first of 25 section champions at Fox Chapel in the ’70s. After two years of covid-related postponements, Kriston, who...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Norwin receiver gets Division I attention
Jackson Pons has two years of high school football left at Norwin, the same number of Division I football scholarship offers he has. Pons, a sophomore wide receiver and defensive back who transferred back to Norwin from Central Catholic, was offered recently by Mississippi State, a FBS program that plays...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 15, 2022
High schools Baseball Friday’s results Class 4A Section 1 Knoch 15, Burrell 5 Nonsection University (WV) 9, Albert Gallatin 2 Freeport 11, Apollo-Ridge 7 West Mifflin 8, Keystone Oaks 3 Neshannock 11, Union 1 South Park at Ringgold, ppd. Washington at Waynesburg, ppd. Beth-Center at McGuffey, ppd. Saturday’s schedule Class...
High school roundup for April 15, 2022: Burrell’s Armstrong fans 16
Katie Armstrong pitched a complete-game four-hitter, striking out 16 and walking none, to lead Burrell to a 1-0 victory over Knoch in Section 1-4A softball Friday. Braelyn Jones went 2 for 3, doubling and scoring the game’s only run in the second inning for the Bucs (4-0, 3-0). Brynne Smith...
Stallsmith’s 6-RBI game helps Knoch beat Burrell in Section 1-4A
Burrell took Game 1, but the Knoch baseball team returned the favor in a big way Friday afternoon in a Section 1-4A rematch at sun-splashed No Offseason in Russellton. Jacob Stallsmith doubled, singled and drove in six runs as the Knights collected 12 hits in a 15-5 victory over the...
WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman joining Pittsburgh Marathon organizer P3R
WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman is leaving her job as the district’s top administrator to join P3R, which organizes races in Western Pennsylvania, including the Pittsburgh Marathon. Scheuneman will be P3R’s youth programming director. She revealed her future job Friday, a day after announcing her departure from the WPIAL. In...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 14, 2022
High schools Baseball Thursday’s results Class 5A Section 1 Kiski Area 6, McKeesport 2 Section 3 West Allegheny 11, South Fayette 10 Section 4 Peters Township 7, Thomas Jefferson 1 Class 3A Section 3 Deer Lakes 8, Ligonier Valley 3 Ligonier Valley 7, Deer Lakes 6 Class 2A Section 1...
High school roundup for April 14, 2022: 2 unusual no-hitters and a wild walk-off in WPIAL baseball
Eddie Albert pitched a unique no-hitter, throwing four no-hit innings Thursday in the completion of a game suspended on Monday, leading Upper St. Clair to a 5-0 victory over Canon-McMillan in Section 2-6A baseball. Albert pitched three no-hit innings Monday before the game was suspended. All told, he struck out...
Ringgold’s Pajak, South Fayette’s Schumaker have big days at TSTCA meet
It was a big day for Ringgold sophomore Ryan Pajak and South Fayette senior Melana Schumaker at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association Invitational on Thursday at West Mifflin. Pajak shined in the distance races, winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races, while Schumaker was part of three first-place finishes. She won...
Quaker Valley football hires former Riverview coach Jason Cappa
Quaker Valley has hired Jason Cappa as its new football coach, the school announced Thursday. Cappa has worked at Quaker Valley since 2019, serving as offensive and defensive line coach for the football team, middle school softball coach and a paraprofessional in the life skills classroom at the high school....
Fun-loving Latrobe baseball team fills up toy box, win column
Simplistic and fun, some trinkets around the clubhouse represent Latrobe baseball’s approach to the game. There’s the pink Barbie car, with Ken and Barbie nestled in and ready to roll, which is a postgame award that goes to the player or players of the game. The shoebox-sized toy has been...
Burrell baseball’s focus in tough section race: ‘Just compete’
Burrell baseball coach Mark Spohn wanted to get a message across to his players after a hard-to-believe 1-0 loss to rival Valley last Friday. The Bucs didn’t allow a hit – or allowed one hit, depending on the scorekeeper – and a ball didn’t leave the infield. Valley scored one...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports for April 14, 2022: Key section volleyball matches on tap
Thursday marks another busy night of WPIAL boys volleyball as section play inches closer to the midway point of the regular season. First place or a share of the section lead is at stake in three matches: Perennial power Bethel Park (3-1) heads south on Route 19 to visit Canon-McMillan...
Softball teams maintain spots in latest Trib 10 power rankings; Beaver, Laurel baseball enter
You can call it staying power, or you can acknowledge that Mother Nature has not permitted enough WPIAL baseball or softball games to be played over the past week. Whatever the case, the inaugural power rankings in district softball were so good, they remain unchanged into the second edition of...
Amy Scheuneman resigning as WPIAL executive director after spring sports championships
Amy Scheuneman’s tenure as WPIAL executive director is ending this spring after two years. Scheuneman, who became the league’s top administrator in the midst of a pandemic, said she is resigning June 1 to accept an undisclosed position elsewhere. She said her new position would be announced Monday. “It would...
WPIAL athletic directors want basketball sections divided by ability not enrollment
What if basketball sections were determined by a team’s talent level rather than its school enrollment? A group of WPIAL athletic directors presented that idea to the WPIAL board in a proposal that would group teams by ability instead of the number of students in the school, an idea meant...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 13, 2022
High schools Baseball Wednesday’s results Class 6A Section 1 Central Catholic 4, Butler 3 Pine-Richland 11, Seneca Valley 10 Section 2 Baldwin 5, Hempfield 3 Upper St. Clair 7, Canon-McMillan 0 Mt. Lebanon 10, Norwin 6 Class 5A Section 1 Kiski Area at McKeesport, ppd. Penn-Trafford 7, Gateway 2 Section...
High school roundup for April 13, 2022: 7-run rally lifts Pine-Richland to comeback win
Pine-Richland erased a six-run deficit with seven runs in the bottom of the seventh, capped off by Tommy Zimmerman being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded with two outs, in an 11-10 victory over Seneca Valley in Section 1-6A baseball Wednesday. Tyler Armstrong had two hits and drove...
South Fayette’s Patterson, North Catholic’s Scheller repeat as WPIAL tennis champs
It was repeat Wednesday at the WPIAL singles tennis championships at the Pure Athletex Sportsplex in Wexford. South Fayette senior Jake Patterson retained the Class 3A title and North Catholic senior Nicolas Scheller the Class 2A crown, breezing to their second titles. They were the 18th and 19th players to...
Westmoreland high school softball notebook: Trio stays perfect
Three Westmoreland teams remained among the undefeated in the WPIAL through Tuesday’s action. Hempfield improved to 4-0 with a home win over Seneca Valley and stayed atop Section 1-6A at 2-0. Penn-Trafford had a 7-0 mark and was 3-0 and tied with Thomas Jefferson for the top spot in Section...
Unbeaten, top-ranked Hempfield overpowers Norwin in slugfest
Hempfield softball players kept barking like dogs from the dugout, a unique rallying cry implemented by first-year coach Tina Madison. Turns out, their bark was not louder than their bite. The top-ranked Spartans kept snarling, even as they watched three Norwin home runs sail over the fence Wednesday, and ended...
WPIAL notebook: Kiski Area doesn’t want to share section with Penn Hills
The racially charged dispute between Penn Hills and Kiski Area wasn’t resolved, so the WPIAL may keep those teams apart in future years. Kiski Area formally asked the WPIAL to keep its teams in separate sections from Penn Hills when new alignments are created, a request the WPIAL board will...
